Lawmaker Asks Help From China Leader

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, January 7, 2002

Associated Press Writer

A visiting congressman said Wednesday that he gave a Chinese vice premier a letter asking for help resolving the case of a detained U.S.-based Chinese businessman.

Rep. Tom Lantos, a prominent critic of the Chinese government, said its human rights record is still a key concern in an era when anti-terrorist cooperation is drawing Beijing and Washington closer together.

"This is a profoundly new era, yet lasting values persist. I want to make clear that human rights is not an agenda item that has been pushed into the background," Lantos, the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, told reporters.

The California lawmaker said he gave Vice Premier Li Lanqing a letter Tuesday asking for help resolving the case of Liu Yaping, who has been held in the Inner Mongolia region for five months.

Liu, 46, is reportedly accused of tax evasion and fraud. He has permanent U.S. resident status and his family lives in Weston, Conn.

Lantos said information from the Inner Mongolia government has been unreliable. He asked for the Chinese central government and Communist Party Central Committee to conduct an independent investigation.

Liu has been denied treatment for a life-threatening brain aneurysm, Lantos wrote in the letter addressed to Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

It said Liu needs brain surgery and said his detention violated Chinese law.

Lantos also asked for a review of the cases of Xu Wenli, 58, a jailed democracy campaigner suffering from hepatitis, and Jigme Sangpo, 73, imprisoned in Tibet for advocating the rights of native Tibetans.

Lantos has been one of China's most persistent critics in Congress. He was in Beijing on a two-day visit for meetings with Chinese officials.

He has said Beijing ought to be denied the right to hold the 2008 Olympics and receive normal trading terms with the United States until it improves its human rights record.

Nevertheless, he said that since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Beijing's help has been "outstanding."

Beijing has responded positively to U.S. requests for intelligence on terror cells and financing, he said.

But Lantos said China should eliminate "negative background noise" generated by political repression, restrictions on religion and anti-American messages in state media.